


Recovery

by DaFishi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alpha Sokka, Alpha Toph, Angst, Beta Aang, Beta Katara, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Healing, Loss, M/M, Mental Illnesses, Omega Zuko, Proposals, Wedding, Zuko and Azula centric, alpha Azula, and Zuko is going to be there for her no matter what, and happy, azula is trying to fix herself, best siblings, injuries, misscarriages, this was sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:22:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27536749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaFishi/pseuds/DaFishi
Summary: Zuko helps Azula heal, help her find herself through the broken mess Ozai left behind.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 191





	Recovery

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling angsts and I wrote this
> 
> Don’t judge

The blue flames lick at Zuko’s face but he manages to dodge them just in time.

Azula’s eyes are wide and hair is uneven as she thrashes in her bonds, spewing fire.

“Lala-” Zuko tries only to be cut off.

“No! Don’t call me that. I’m not weak, I’m not a child,” the female alpha snarls.

Zuko smiles weakly. “No, you aren’t. But you’re hurt. You’re hungry. And most of all, you need help. Please. Let me help you?”

Azula breathes fire, dark and hot right at the omega. 

“I’m no idiot, I don’t need ‘help’,” Azula snaps.

Zuko simply sighs, knowing he can’t do much more right now.

So he leaves, listening to Azula yell that he was weak.

***

This time, she wouldn’t breathe fire.

But the second Zuko stepped past a certain point, she glared harshly at him.

“Stay away,” the alpha growls. 

Zuko continues with ease, clearly expecting this. “Of course. Would you like to hear some news?”

“What?” Azula begrudgingly asks.

“I’m engaged,” Zuko said.

Azula’s eyes widen slightly before she takes a more neutral look. “I see. To whom?”

Zuko smiles wide. “Sokka! He proposed yesterday after courting me for a couple of months!”

Azula scoffs. “Of course you would taint the pureblood lineage with some pathetic water tribe idiot.”

“He invented war balloons and submarines and knows fighting styles of all nations,” Zuko mentions.

“I see why you might have accepted his courting,” Azula concedes.

Zuko laughs and Azula had never truly realized how much she missed that sound.

***

This time, Zuko is patching up Azula’s wrists.

They cautiously let the alpha out of her restraints and she hadn’t hurt anyone yet so they kept it that way.

Unfortunately, because they needed stronger restraints, the cuffs had bitten and torn into the skin.

But Azula wouldn’t let anyone close except Zuko.

So here he was, wrapping her wrists in bandages while he told her a story.

“….and Toph learned how to bone bend from Bumi so that was terrifying,” Zuko continues, almost done.

Azula wasn’t really paying attention to the story.

She was more mesmerized watching the smooth pattern of Zuko’s hand methodically wrapping the bandage around her wrist.

“….ula? Azula?” Zuko questions.

The alpha snaps to attention at her name. “Yes?”

“I was asking if it was too tight?” The omega asks, sounding concerned.

“It’s fine,” Azula dismisses.

“That’s what you said when you were five and then you had bruising for a week,” Zuko scolds.

“Are you comparing me to a five-year-old?” Azula inquires.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Zuko counters.

And despite her trying her very hardest not to, she starts laughing.

Genuinely laughing with mirth twinkling in her eyes and a slight lift to her voice.

And the grin Zuko gave her was blinding.

Azula could see why Agni blessed her brother.

Sometimes, the warmth in his heart could match the crackle in her electricity.

***

Azula lay in bed, Zuko curled into her side.

The omega was fast asleep but Azula couldn’t comprehend why.

She could kill him with such ease and escape.

No one would be able to stop her.

But instead, despite constant warnings, Zuko decided she was trustworthy and showed her vulnerability by sleeping next to her.

In the past, Azula would have milked this opportunity.

She would have killed him without a second thought.

But now it made her sick just to think about it.

Was she weak?

No.

Zuko said it was….honesty.

Compassion.

Kindness.

And most of all, acting human.

And as Azula studied the peaceful features of her brother, she decided that she didn’t mind being weak.

As long as she had Zuko by her side.

***

As it turns out, Azula ends up by Zuko’s side at his wedding.

She wore a dress to match Katara and Toph and Aang was crying more than everyone at the wedding combined.

Sokka looked rather nice, Azula thought, but it was Zuko that stole everyone’s breath away.

A stunning deep red dress that Azula was sure fried Sokka’s main circuits in his brain.

And everything went smoothly even if Azula wrinkled her nose slightly when Zuko and Sokka kissed.

Katara openly laughed at her expression and Toph made a sound of agreement.

Azula was confused, to say the least.

When Zuko introduced her to them, they had been so hostile, she was certain she had seen the Avatar’s tattoos glow faintly.

But the second Zuko said she was trustworthy, they smiled, laughed, and accepted her with such ease it felt like whiplash.

In fact, such ease that when she threatened Sokka about hurting Zuko, he looked stricken and panicked but not in the way she was used to.

She decided she rather liked the concept of having friends.

And they liked her if what happened at dinner was anything to go by.

“Why is she here?” A man asks, pointing distastefully at Azula.

Zuko smiles. “This is my sister, Azula. I postponed the wedding to ensure she was able to come.”

Now that, Azula hadn’t known.

She hadn’t known that Zuko had postponed his wedding for 3 years just for the hope she would recover and attend.

But it made her insides feel warm.

“She is a psycho and a murderer, she should be hung,” the man argues.

The dinner goes dead silent.

Azula notices Toph and Katara take very subtle bending stances to slightly beat up the guy as Aang’s soft eyes harden in anger.

Sokka reaches for his weapon but it’s Zuko who surprises Azula the most.

“If you would like to keep your life, I suggest keeping quiet instead of stating such bold accusations like an imbecile in front of the Fire Lord. May I remind you that I am not my father but the strict rules that forbid you from directly talking in such a disrespectful way towards royalty is punishable by permanent silence,” Zuko says coldly, voice quiet.

Despite the soft tone, there is an eerie silence and the hall looks uncomfortable as the sheer power and anger radiating from the omega in waves suffocates them.

“I’m sorry, my lord,” the man says, hastily retreating.

Zuko nods and much to Azula’s shock, everything returns to normal.

“Well, Zuzu, I didn’t think you had it in you,” Azula compliments.

Zuko hugs her. “Nobody insults my sister in front of me.”

And Azula feels the breath leave her lungs because he said, my sister.

The omega had said ’my sister’.

It was never a question of whether Azula was royalty or not.

It was the fact that Azula was Zuko’s sister.

And the female alpha hugs her brother right back in a show of physical affection she hadn’t done in a long time.

***

Azula jolts awake as she hears a creak.

She looks to the door to see a stricken Zuko standing in the doorway.

“Zuko, what-” Azula starts to question.

“I miscarried.”

And Azula feels her heart stop as Zuko’s tears start.

The omega launches himself into Azula’s arms, sobs wracking his frame.

Azula can do nothing but cradle, joining him in mourning the loss of a child that never got to see the world they lived in.

“Does everyone know?” Azula asks softly.

She doesn’t know whether she spoke softly not to spook Zuko or the fact that she simply wasn’t capable of speaking loudly at the time.

The resounding silence was more than answer enough.

“Why come to me? Why not Sokka?” Azula inquires.

“I don’t know,” Zuko responds. “I don’t know.”

And Azula thinks it’ll be the only time she sees her brother break.

But it happens again.

And again.

And again.

Until Zuko asks the question that Azula dreads the most.

“Am I broken?” he asks aimlessly.

He had come again, the fourth miscarriage in the past three years.

He hadn’t even cried this time, he was just empty.

No more feelings, no more emotions.

Simply empty.

“Why would you say that?” Azula says, shocked at the question.

“I’m not infertile and neither is Sokka. We can get the baby but I can’t keep it. What’s wrong with me?” Zuko asks, looking helplessly at her.

Azula grabs his shoulder. “Zuko. There is nothing wrong with you and there never will be. You will get your child, I promise. One day, your baby is going to come but you can’t give up because you are not broken.”

Zuko looks at Azula, the light slowly returning to his eyes.

He smiles.

It’s weak, it’s weary, and it’s dying but it’s there.

“You’re right. We can’t stop trying.”

***

Azula sits with Izumi in the sun.

Zuko had gotten a baby right after Azula’s had spoken to him and now Izumi was 9 years old.

She was a joy and loved everyone and everything around her.

She held this bubbly joy that came from Sokka but smiled and worked hard just like Zuko.

Her ingenuity and compassion came from both but Azula saw some of her in the child.

Izumi had the same drive, thirst for knowledge and power that she did.

And it scared Azula.

What if her niece ended up like her?

No.

She wouldn’t let it happen.

Or even if her life depended on it.

“Aunty Azula?” Izumi asks.

Azula looks down at the young alpha. “Yes?”

“I need some advice,” Izumi says seriously.

Azula looks at her niece carefully. “What?”

“About everything,” Izumi says with dead seriousness.

Azula looks at her niece.

She wants to laugh.

She wants to say she has made more mistakes than she can count.

That she is foolish to ask someone as lost in life as her.

But instead, she speaks.

She speaks from her mind, her heart, her past, and her mistakes.

“When life starts, things are going to be good.

But there are always problems. 

Because when you lose the one you love the most, you lose your path in life.

You succumb to the deepest desires of life that no one should be capable of reaching.

And you want to float, you want to stop drowning.

But when you look around, you see there is no shoulder for you to lay your head when you're tired.

And you become weary of those around you.

Because you know deep inside that betrayal will never truly come from your enemies.

It always comes from those who mean the most to you, from those you know will do it but are never strong enough to stop.

So my advice on life is to keep the ones you love close and never lose sight of the light that brings you back from drowning.”

Azula looks at her niece who was slowly processing her words.

The female alpha chuckles. “Sorry, that was probably too much-”

“I understand,” Izumi says.

She looks Azula dead in the eyes and repeats. “I understand.”

And Azula knows right then and there.

She knows, she can feel it.

This girl right here, Izumi. 

She was going to be smart, she was going to be cunning, and most of all?

She was going to be everything in life Azula never got to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos please!


End file.
